Minutes of August 11, 2011 Meeting

1. Load Patch Cluster 2 for Symphony 3.3.1

Patch Cluster 2 for Symphony 3.3.1 was released a couple of months ago and fixes the problem with
local toolbars. Locally created toolbars became nonfunctional after the initial upgrade to Symphony
3.3.1. back in January of 2010 and we've been waiting for this fix for a long time. IIS will load
the patch into the test system the last week of August and, if all looks good, it will be loaded
into production the following week. This patch delivers a new Workflows client. This means all
workstations running Workflows will be prompted to update after the patch is installed.

2. Upgrade to Symphony 3.4

Symphony 3.4 was released at the end of 2010 and contains a number of new features. Once Patch
Cluster 2 for Symphony 3.3.1 is loaded into the production system, IIS will load Symphony 3.4 into
the test system and then all departments will follow the standard procedures to test the new
release and verify functionality. Some sites on the SirsiDynix listservs reported there were
problems with LDAP authentication in Symphony 3.4 and we identified this as a major showstopper
that prevented us from loading the upgrade earlier. Recently, our SirsiDynix Library Relations
Manager, Lisa Witteman, reported that the LDAP problems were all local to the institutions and all
of the problems previously reported were resolved. We are now able to schedule the upgrade.

Chris reviewed a few of the notable enhancements coming in the upgrade. They were:

Ability to select wizards by right-click

A new "onshelf hold" wizard that produces a dynamic display of the items on the twice daily pull lists

Ability to build up to 1000 cross-references for leading terms; currently the maximum is 100

Wording on next step buttons in wizard displays are clearer

Last load date will become a searchable field in user searches

Web auth id, which enables our Rutgers affiliated users to log in with LDAP credentials in the library catalog, is being added to the pipe-delimited patron loader format

The latest version of the Symphony 3.4 release notes has been posted to the SirsiDynix
documentation on the library's website. Everyone is encouraged to review them in preparation for
the upgrade.

3. Review of the SirsiDynix software roadmap

Chris reviewed recent announcements by SirsiDynix regarding their product release plans. As they
are working on the enhancements to their suite of software products, SirsiDynix reported that their
development this year was built on five themes. The five themes are Social, Mobile, Communications,
Cloud, and Analytics. For Social, they are putting more emphasis on digital resource integration
and adding more social functions to their discovery products. One example of this is their recent
release of a native Facebook application. For Mobile they are continuing to put more emphasis in
support of mobile devices for the public, as well as staff, and are enhancing their BookMyne and
PocketCirc applications. For Communications, they are improving their software to make better use
of text messaging, chat, and push notifications. For Cloud they are promoting the services they
offer in a cloud computing environment, and for Analytics they are enhancing the collection and
presentation of metric data via improving such products as Director's Station. They also emphasized
that their overarching theme under which all this development occurs is named BLUE. BLUE stands for
Best Library User Experience.

4. Update/Status on Director's Station Migration and Update Sessions

Bob reported on the current state of the Director's Station migration and plans for update
sessions. The migration was mostly done in June; however, subsequent to the completion of the
migration, Bob found that some of the historic transaction data did not migrate properly. Some
months of data were missing in some of the cubes such as All Checkouts Historical and All Activity
Measures. Bob has been working with SirsiDynix to reload this data but it has taken a while. Some
of the delays were caused by our power outages and other downtime this summer; however, we
anticipate that these remaining issues will be resolved in early September. Once done, Bob, Tracey
and Chris will begin work on planning the update sessions as well as revising the existing two-day
training outline to reflect the new functionality. For existing users, the DS training team will
host a couple of road shows in New Brunswick/Piscataway, Camden, and Newark to review the new
features and functions. It will not be a hands-on session but will be show and tell that will
demonstrate new features. Once these are done, Bob, Tracey, and Chris will resume training new
users on Director's Station.

5. Review of ILS statistic

LIS team members reviewed statistics prepared by Bob Warwick on the number of titles added to our
ILS since we migrated to SirsiDynix in 1997.

6. Update from 2012 SNRG conference at Franklin & Marshall College

Chris reported on his attendance at a SirsiDynix Northeast Users Group conference held in June at
Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. The regional conference is a good low-cost
alternative to learn about and network with SirsiDynix staff and fellow customers. The conference
was well attended and included individuals from as far north as Canada and as far south as Georgia.
SirsiDynix also sent seasoned veterans to the conference such as Berit Nelson, VP of Library
Relations, as well as others in sales and support. Some updates learned at the regional conference
were:

The enhancement forums are being revived. The enhancement process has been somewhat dormant the
past two years and it was good to hear that the process will resume.

The 2012 annual conference will be held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, May 3-5, 2012 in
Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

SD staff in Utah are moving to a LEED certified building. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design and is an internationally-recognized green building certification system.

Symphony 3.4.1 is due in either Q3 or Q4 of 2011 and Symphony 3.5 is due by Q2 of 2012. BookMyne
will support the Android phone in Q3 of 2011. Plans for more mobile support beyond the iPhone or
Android is coming in 2012.

SD has developed a native Facebook app so that users can search their local SD catalogs from
within Facebook. Includes catalog searching, My Account, Place Holds, ability to create bookshelves
of items from the local catalog to share with Facebook friends. Sites interested in this app should
contact their sales rep for a price quote.

SD plans to support SMS communications via text messaging and chat in the next 18 months.

7. Update on Vale-OLS project

Chris reported on the status of the Vale Open Library System project. Currently the Vale OLS
Implementation Team (VOIT) is installing test instances of open source discovery tools for review
and comment by the Vale community. So far, VuFIND was installed and eXtensible Catalog is next on
the list. VuFind may drop off the list because the implementation team subsequently learned that
VuFind does not support consortial relationships well. BlackLight is also on the list to test but
the VOIT needs to verify how well it supports consortia. Tibor Purger, Director of IIS, recently
met with the VOIT to assist in specifying the server requirements for the Vale union ILS. The VOIT
is working with Grace Agnew to draft charges to designated Vale subcommittees to prepare for data
cleanup and circulation policy review.

8. Next meeting

The next quarterly LIS meeting will be held on Thursday, November 10 at 1:30 p.m. in the TSB
conference room. The primary focus of this meeting will be to sign-off and prepare for the load of
Symphony 3.4 in the production system during the Winter Break.